Men of War

I wrote this on the old Steampowered user forum, but thought copypasting would maybe stop some misconception ♥♥♥♥-flinging here and there.

There are 3 "MoW" games being developed right now.

Men of War: Assault Squad 2[www.menofwargame.com] - More of the same, but on a newish engine with lots of improvements, AND FULL STEAM SUPPORT. Including Steam networking, matchmaking, and Workshop support. Developed by Digitalmindsoft[digitalmindsoft.eu], published by 1C[www.1cpublishing.eu]. Coming out in a month or two.

Call to Arms[digitalmindsoft.eu] - A new game that is a "spiritual successor" to the MoW series. Gameplay is redesigned and put in modern times(yep T80/T90 against M1 Abrams), game engine is based on the same heavily modified GEM2 that MoWAS2 will use, but even further improved, with full Steam intergration. Developer is Digitalmindsoft[digitalmindsoft.eu], publisher is unknown, possibly self published on digital download services+Lace Mamba Global as physical distributor. Coming out sometime in 2014.

War Today: Five Day War - Another spiritual successor from another company, Five Day War will try recreate events of the 2008 Russia–Georgia war with precision. Expect a meaty campaign with modernish post soviet equipment. Uses an upgraded GEM2 engine, possible Steam integration unknown. Developed by Aarre Games Limited[aarregames.com], possibly self published. Coming out sometime in 2014.

Original developers of the strategy games based on the GEM/GEM2 engine were ukranian Best Way[bestway.com.ua], with 1C[www.1cpublishing.eu] publishing all their work, while aquiring the rights to all brands(like MoW).BW created the revolutionary Soldiers: Heroes of World War II in 2004, then the sequel Faces of War in 2006, followed by 2 russian only expansions for FoW. After that they teamed up with Digitalmindsoft to bring us Men of War, an improved Faces of War for the west with content from the 2 unreleased expansions in 2009, but they did that only as a side project.Now they are busy making Nuclear Union[www.nuclearunion.com] a third person Stalker-Fallout hybrid, and its unknown if they will make any new strategy games in the future.

But dont fear 1C gave them a hand, an internal studio of theirs brought us the OK standalone expansion Red Tide in 2009, then Digitalmindsoft stepped in with their own multiplayer reimagining Assault Squad that we all know and love in early 2011, mediocre at best MoW Vietnam followed that year with the help of another 1C internal studio, and early 2012 saw the vile joke yet another 1C internal studio pulled with Condemned Heroes that was basically a simple mission pack for MoW with nothing new added(2-3 new infantry skins? DAFUQ?). So since Best Way is MIA, if it wasnt for startups like Digitalmindsoft and Aarre, 1C would be more than happy to milk the franchise till its dry, and throw it away after.

Basically you though MoW games were made by 1 dev and 1 publisher, so it would have been easy to integrate everything into one. In reality were speaking about at least 5 dev teams, and before 2010 none of them even considered Steamworks, beacuse before Steam wasnt that big black hole of PC gaming that it is now.

Well if you look at it, MoWAS was more of a fixed and heavily upgraded version of MoW vanillas multiplayer than a "real" expansion, and MoWAS2 is a further development of that. In a better world, where 1C would have put the same money in the series as THQ/SEGA did with Company of Heroes, MoWAS 1-2 could have been in MoW in the first place.

Well if you look at it, MoWAS was more of a fixed and heavily upgraded version of MoW vanillas multiplayer than a "real" expansion, and MoWAS2 is a further development of that. In a better world, where 1C would have put the same money in the series as THQ/SEGA did with Company of Heroes, MoWAS 1-2 could have been in MoW in the first place.

well C1 is not a company with the same scope as THQ, bear in mind

is quite funny to see how THQ turned out in the end tough

the game has gathered quite a cult following and great critical acclaim which is saying a lot comming from its humble beginings